Hey guys, Zenphyre here and this is my very first and last time that I will be posting on forums ever since I joined Spiral Knights. Before I get started I will point out a few things:



So yeah I think that’s about it on the points I provided, so might as well get started with this small introduction:

...As the Skylark scanned Cradle’s surface for any signs of life, it was mysteriously attacked by an unknown force from above the surface of the planet. Having it’s tearium core damaged by the firepower it was inflicted with, the colossal spaceship began hurtling down towards the planet at raging speeds. Knowing that upon impact its inhabitants will be killed, Captain Ozlo initiated the evacuation of every knight within the Skylark via escape pod, which can hold one knight each. As the Skylark began to further descend to the surface like an asteroid, the escape pods ejected successfully and began landing on the surface at around the same speed as the spaceship, appearing as burning red meteors falling from the sky from one’s perspective on the ground. Upon impact, the Skylark’s tearium core was critically damaged and half of the ship was completely destroyed. It’s inhabitants however, were able to survive through the escape pods as each landed on Cradle’s surface, forming a crater below their metallic glowing red surface. The sealed doors to each of these pods then opened a moment later, and the knights within them began to emerge and look around the new terrain that they have landed upon. The knights then began to trek through these new lands and after a while stumbled upon large alien­like beings who call themselves the Strangers, and offered the knights refuge in a sanctuary called Haven.

One pod in particular remained unopened and landed within a deep forest, surrounded by fireflies that glowed a luminous blue as soft as the sky. Next to the pod was a lake, untouched by any sentient being and as clear as a crystal of absolute purity. The scenery itself laid unharmed by the crash landing of the pod, only the crater below it remained the only source of destruction for this peaceful land.

The door to the escape pod suddenly bursts open, a hand outstretched with the handle to the internal component of the door lying in its grip. The knight within emerged and looked around the new land that he landed upon and took in its scenery. Looking ahead after observing the sights around him the knight began walking forward, following a path that pointed towards a glow in the distance that signaled a flare that was lit. Laying in his hand was the handle to the door which will serve as his keepsake in which “some doors, once opened, cannot be closed; just as some missions, once accepted, offer no turning back...”.

Alright now that the introduction has been shown, like I said it’s Zenphyre and some of you may know me as the knight who wears the White Rose set with prismatic stuff on it with Twilight Aura all the time in Haven. Back then I used to have the Red Rose set with the same stuff but with Aggro Aura, but my true intention was finishing the White Rose set because that was my dream set for a long time ever since I started Spiral Knights. Many of you may know me based on me being in Haven, others through runs in the Clockworks, and some may not know me at all. What made me stand out though was that I never joined a guild since I started Spiral Knights in 2011. It was somewhat of a feat that some can’t do but I was able to do it and even though I received many invites from new guilds to the more prestigious ones, I declined every single one of them which kind of made me known because of that. It’s not because I don’t like guilds (in other games I was part of a guild), it is because the game can be done by one’s self and doesn’t take a lot to get through it. While I may have not made much of an impact in the community since I tend to stay mostly quiet around those in Spiral Knights, to some I am considered very wise and informative about the game and how to play it effectively. My goal wasn’t to establish recognition of myself throughout the community (though I believe half of the playerbase already knows me since I get constant PM’s of people saying hello to me even though I don’t know them), but my goal was to see how far I can get into the game and give myself a fun experience playing it either by myself or with others. Overall I have accomplished that goal and continued to improve on it as I made many friends, some enemies, and influenced a few on how to have a great time in Spiral Knights.

Unfortunately I cannot continue to enhance that goal. I have been offered a full­time internship position from a big aerospace company (aerospace engineer here) and due to still being in university it will take almost all my free time away from enjoying the game. I will be working with that company for a few years and when I finish I will probably be going into my career which will take more of my time.

From that I regret to say that I will be retiring from Spiral Knights to pursue my goals outside of the game, as they are bigger and far more important in establishing my career. I wished I could have gone on longer in the game and see any further development OOO may have but there is a time when outside things become more important, in which case it finally got me. I won’t delete my knight because it has sentimental value but I will uninstall the game to free up some space. I also won’t be selling any of my gear or stuff because one, I don’t have a Steam account and I’ve been playing the game through the client and two, I want to at least give it to people who will make great use of it instead of selling it around to make profit, but since I can’t tell who deserves my stuff I won’t be giving it away. The game itself has given me a great experience both online and in real life. Through the game I met many new friends and for the ones that I knew for a long time, we were able to establish connections outside the game and know each other more personally. The great things the game offered kept me from playing any other online game, and it’s great to say that this was the longest played game I’ve been in and enjoyed the most. There were drawbacks to the game that disrupted my experience but they haven’t made much of an impact to quit the game entirely.

Now some of you may say that I’ll probably come back because the game will still keep me interested due to its mysterious ways of keeping people into the game, but that’s not true. Once I retire from Spiral Knights I’ll actually stay retired for good. I won’t have the time to get on anymore due to my goals and I have to pursue them as they are linked to what I want to do in the future.

I can’t believe I actually made it this far in the game not only in progression but in knowing how to play it with others. The community’s been awesome and some of the events that OOO provided were the best that I’ve been in. I known so many people in the game and some of them stayed more to enjoy the game’s progression while others left for other matters. Being a old veteran of the game since 2011, I’ve seen many that came in around the time that I joined Spiral Knights and knew those that joined before I started playing the game. Finding the game on an MMO website ignited my interest in it and from that point I played the game for as much as I could. I can’t carry on that aspect anymore and just like most of the old veterans that played the game and left for other opportunities, I’ll be leaving to pursue my own in the real world.

Moving away from that for a bit I’ll start talking about the game and what stood out to me the most. It will be divided into sections so hopefully it’ll be more straightforward and organized. Like I said if it’s too long I don’t mind that you read the whole thing as it isn’t my intention to make one read it all. Also much of the content will already be mentioned or known throughout the community but to me it’s pretty much a passing down memory lane.

● PVE
○ Clockworks/Arcade:​ The bread and butter of Spiral Knights, the Arcade lets us venture into a vast underground world called the Clockworks which is composed of 30 depths separated by 3 tiers which raise the difficulty the deeper one goes. Each depth has randomized levels that is based on specific monsters that deal a certain damage type and status. Made up of four gates that rotate every eight days (new gate appears after two days), each gate not only provides a random assortment of levels but it also gives us boss stratums which provides a small story to know it was established and gives players a challenge upon encountering these levels. To me the Arcade was the main component of the game that kept me interested in playing and it helped me become better at knowing how to play it.

When minerals were available the gates were more predictable based on what minerals were deposited by players, and back then there were plenty of fiend type levels which actually provided a challenge. As minerals were no longer able to be deposited to determine the gates, the Arcade became more random in which one had to be more aware on what type of gear is needed and how to deal with the situations that appear during a battle. The Arcade itself provided a fun experience and gave me different scenarios on how to deal with the battles that it provided me, but over time as certain updates came by and made the game more dependable on missions, it lost some of its usefulness. Back then there was a player count on the gates which showed how many people were doing the gate (usually it was around the 150­200’s before missions for each gate), but due to other opportunities that became available the Arcade became a little more barren. The player count was removed and one was no longer able to know how many were running that particular gate, and a party finder was established to show the people with open parties in which they can join (also based on server).

The Arcade was what truly got me into playing the game and even though back then when mist energy limited my playtime in the Arcade for up to to ten levels, it still didn’t disinterest me from knowing more about the game. My only suggestion to the Arcade is the implementation of sandbox­type levels and challenge modes that involve fastest times based on group size and/or completing certain tasks that the challenge asks. These have already been said on one of Nick’s announcements regarding the Arcade Redux but I went along and restated it. As of now I still run the Arcade often (normally solo but I do party runs occasionally) and it still gives me amusement to go through these levels and see what types of monsters I’ll face and what materials I can get to use for crafting gear. I will miss this particular part of the game the most as it showed me how to play the game effectively and provided me with excellent knowledge on how gates work and what types of encounters I will deal with whenever I get the chance to run these levels.

○ Missions:​ Before this was implemented, all players were accustomed to going into the actual Arcade area and accessing the gates from that specific section of Haven. As the update for missions was implemented, the benefit that it provided was an actual storyline from how the knights came to Haven to knowing more about the Crimson Order, the Swarm, and the missing members of Alpha Squad. As the update rolled by, these missions also gave prestige upon completion which is added to a total on one’s knight. As the total grows for each mission complete, a badge is awarded for reaching a certain amount of prestige and changes every time more is added and achieving the higher amount required to obtain the next badge. The highest, being at 45,000 prestige rewards you with the Spiral Order symbol badge, is the final badge one gets upon acquiring this amount but more prestige can still be received by completing more missions. This doesn’t give any more incentives other than showing that one has done a great amount of missions and has an excellent amount of experience in doing these missions.

The drawback to this update was that it made the Arcade more obsolete in terms of ranked missions. Since certain missions provide the boss levels that are accessed in the Arcade, many can access these missions without going in the Arcade, doing the levels before the boss levels and then getting to the actual boss. Another drawback to the update was that it established a larger gap between those that are inexperienced or new to the game from those that played the game for a long time. The difference, for example, can be established by comparing a Knight Elite to a Vanguard. In comparison to most of the community, the Vanguard will be better suited for harder levels because of the many missions he/she did while the Knight Elite won’t be chosen because he/she has yet to said missions that the Vanguard has already done, like the King of Ashes mission for example. However, many usually wouldn’t know that certain players from before missions being implemented obtained high level gear and have already done these levels through means of the Arcade, therefore they already have experience in doing these harder missions yet they don’t have access to them. I have seen Squires/Apprentices/Knight/Knight Elites with full 5* gear (they can retain this if they were in the game before missions came out) and compared them to many Vanguards. I have ran with a few of them and based on my observation, they performed at the same skill if not better than actual Vanguards. The only difference is that they don’t have access to the missions a Vanguard has and in similarity some can perform just as good as a Vanguard.

Back then before these missions there was no such thing as Squire or Vanguard, so everyone was on equal grounds in terms of skill and what gear they have equipped. Heck back then having a full 5* set made one the primary choice for running boss missions such as Jelly King or Vanaduke. Nowadays it’s based on rank title even though some high ranked players such as Champions or Vanguards don’t give these lower ranked players a chance to do these harder missions. My only suggestion is to remove rank titles but keep prestige badges as this may minimize the somewhat stereotype gap between these players and can help give better interaction among one another. They’ll still maintain the badge as proof of them doing the missions and show how much experience they have gotten from running them.

What makes Missions stand out to me was that the Arcade was still accessible through the Mission display without actually going into the actual Arcade area. This was a much needed tool in accessing the gates without having to walk into the actual Arcade and saves up time in getting into required levels that one may do. The update overall was beneficial to many but terrible to others who played the game for a long time and before they were implemented, but in my opinion is provided a more straightforward approach to getting through the game as well as establishing a more organized storyline to what happens in the Arcade and provides lore behind the bosses that are within these levels. Just as a side note, a Squire can be just as good as a Vanguard if not better since title doesn’t fully determine skill; what is determined is how the person plays the game and how good he/she is in playing the levels.

● PvP
○ Blast Network: ​Released in mid­-2011 (I think I haven’t looked at the patch notes but I know it was around that time), this player­vs­player mode involves players dropping bombs at set locations in a configured map with blocks placed that act as wells, similar to a maze. The objective is to to kill the enemy player or team with these bombs which detonate and expand their blast radius in a diagonal or vertical fashion, said blast radius covering around 5­6 tiles (don’t remember how far it went). Power ups are given which either speeds up the player, makes the fuse shorter for bombs, speeds up the blast speed of the bomb after detonation, or allows players to place bombs down at a faster rate. Strategy and quick wits is needed for this game mode was even the person’s own bomb can kill them or their team. My view on this game mode is that it was a very fun minigame to play and the mechanics are similar to the Bomberman series games I played in my younger years. Gear stats were ignored since all bombs are one hit kills and bomber set stats such as charge time reduction or bomb damage increase are ignored. In its initial release Blast Network was a hit and around 400-­500 players were trying out the new minigame. Through this minigame I acquired all the bombheads but what made it fun for me was that it brought me back to playing Bomberman which I enjoyed. In my opinion I wouldn’t change much aspect to this minigame as it gives everyone equal grounds and the only thing needed is strategy and cunning. Even though as of now Blast Network is hardly ever played (admittedly I don’t play it anymore due to lack of players joining), the minigame gave me a fun experience outside the Arcade and reinforced my ability to place bombs at strategic locations to eliminate the enemy team and gain more points. PvP wise I’ll miss this minigame the most as it brought me back to my younger days and helped me connect once again with one of my old games through similar mechanics and gameplay.

○ Lockdown: ​A rebalanced (somewhat but still more balanced) version of Super Brawl to those who know what Super Brawl was, this minigame enabled players to fight one another using their loadouts in a domination style game mode. The objective is to capture a set point placed on the map and maintain that point to gain a higher score the more time that point is captured. The opposing teams fight for control of these points and the team with the most points at the end of the round wins. Each team is given three classes to choose from and each class comes with its own bonuses and mechanics. The first class being the Striker, is an offensive class that is used to go against other players and reduce the opposing team’s attacks. They also have vital roles in capturing points and maintaining resistance against the opposing team from capturing said points. The second class being the Guardian, uses a shield that resists all damage types to an extent, heals the party and itself by a certain amount of health depending on tier level, and protects the party itself from outside attacks. The Guardian is extremely useful in locking down points and protecting their teammates. Being more defensive than the other two classes (can be offensive as well), it plays vital roles in securing points and helping out teammates in low health. The third class being the Recon, plays as the team’s scout and uses an invisibility cloak to move around enemies unnoticed. Within a certain range of a Recon, a mark is applied to an opposing player which notifies them that a Recon is nearby and if they stand within the Recon’s range long enough, the mark changes to a death mark which lowers the defenses of the affected player. They play a great role in scouting ahead for enemies and weakening them, as well as capturing points unnoticed.

Based on my observation, Lockdown is a neat minigame to play which takes into account mechanics of the Arcade mixed with three different classes that offer unique playstyles to go against the opposing team. I have not seen any other game use these kind of mechanics (if there are others then that’s great), and this minigame intrigued me into playing it. The benefit is that it provided was an alternative to Blast Network and a more free­roaming environment where gear can be used and a much larger variety of tactics can be used. It also gives people time away from the Arcade and missions and lets end­game players enjoy themselves while they wait for future updates. The drawback is... well I’m not going to explain them because there are so many explained in the Coliseum with countless threads posted on the negatives of Lockdown, and me repeating these drawbacks, though I’ll mention a few such as UV’s, AT, random teams, etc., will only add more to the threads. There are already many suggestions to how the minigame is supposed to be and some of mine are similar to what many have stated, so I’ll just say that it’s a great minigame to play and it’s optional so it isn’t required to progress further into the game.

The community that plays Lockdown often, as a side note, will have to realize that it is a minigame and has no true intention in the progression of the game. Based on what I seen, the colorful vocabulary expressed by these individuals when they lose or win can be quite entertaining to see but it only adds more negativity to how the minigame is seen. I barely play Lockdown anymore due to this and even then I’m not that much of a PvP person since I prefer PvE due to its better interaction with players, but that’s just me since it differs among everyone. Just as a word of advice for those individuals, if you can’t stand the minigame just play another PvP game, as others are usually more balanced, on equal grounds, and have a higher playerbase so you can receive better recognition among them, and some even have sponsors or official paid tournaments set up. The game wasn’t built for PvP well enough and Super Brawl was a clear example on why it was removed, but if the development team applied more time into fixing the issues then Spiral Knights can have a potential PvP system.

● Exploration
○ I’m not going to focus too much on this because this post is already long enough, but overall the game itself has so many things that amused me and kept me playing for a long time. From NPC interaction, friend making, gear crafting to clockwork expeditions, the game offers many things that players can enjoy and even know the game can be quick­paced at times, Spiral Knights makes it enjoyable to many. Some of the NPC’s had a good sense of humor while others were serious in their fields. Crafting gear was straightforward and some recipes are only available through Basil, and guild halls were expanded to include more things such as personal rooms, auction houses, vendors and training rooms (though I was never part of a guild like I said). The events that happen (Anniversary, Apocrea, March of the Tortodrones, Dark Harvest, Winterfest, etc.) were extremely fun to take part in and revolved around the holidays or memorable events. There are many more things the game has and I enjoyed every bit of it, but those that are new to the game will have to find out what they are and learn from what they experienced the same way I did.

Well to sum it all up, Spiral Knights has been an awesome game and were some of the best years of my life playing the game. I enjoyed every aspect the game offered and am very thankful for OOO to make such a great game. Even though Nick left to pursue other game developments, him being part of the team influenced many into playing the game with me being included, and his announcements on the forums were very informative on what new update or content is coming up. Lately though promos and reskins has been happening in order for OOO to increase revenue into making new content, but I didn’t mind that because the game hasn’t changed negatively based on the promos, as they are only promos and completely optional. Even though the development team is not very big in terms of members (I believe there are more artists than there are programmers), they are trying their best to meet the demands of people. Not every game is perfect so not everyone can expect what they want and it takes time to make (and yes go ahead and say they had four and a half years to do something yet nothing’s happening). With me I just enjoyed what the game offered and went through it for my entertainment and to chat with my friends. A few tips for possible newcomers or people that see this post that play the game:

That’s about everything I can talk about if you made it this far (I give you an Oreo, ­gives oreo­) so thank you all very much for the wonderful experience I’ve been in, thank you OOO for making such a fun game and thank you Sega for helping OOO in establishing the game. It was an honor being with you guys since 2011 and I hope you guys continue on with the game and reach the end of it!

...Returning to the crash landing the knight had arrived upon touchdown on Cradle’s surface, the knight takes out his Combustor and Argent Peacemaker, his very first 5* sword and gun and places it next to a boulder that oversees the small lake beside it. Next to his sword he places his Grey Owlite Shield, his first 5* shield which continues to glow with its heavenly light. On top of the boulder he puts his Vog Cub set, his first 5* gear and runs his hand through the magma­glowing cracks that emanate from the helmet’s surface. Moving towards the escape pod, the knight puts in his Proto armor on the seat within the spherical container then heads towards the lake.

Brushing off a speck of dust from his White Rose Tabard, the knight took in the nightly sight he had missed from his years away with the Spiral Order and reconciles with the first time he landed on Cradle to entering Haven. He goes back to all the adventures he had, the friends he made, the enemies he fought, and the experience he had with all of them. Noticing the fireflies around him started to interact with his Twilight Aura, the knight walks towards the lake and stands on the lake’s center on its surface.

Stretching out his arms like the wings of an phoenix, the aura around him start to intensify and the fireflies started spinning around him at very high speeds. The knight then closed his eyes as he was gently lifted off the lake’s surface. The glow of the aura grew stronger with a sky blue color and engulfed the knight’s entire body. As this happened, all the memories he had gone through came back and began rushing in his head at a faster speed, glowing brighter as a white flash started consuming his mind. A few moments later, the intense glow outlined the knight’s body and slowly started to dissipate the knight little by little. The knight’s form crumbled away gently as small blue specks of light that made their way into the stars. As the last speck of light took off, a lone sky blue feather fell down from the knight's White Rose Chapeau which no longer was present. A small breeze carried the feather to the lake’s shore where it landed next to a lone sky blue rose that was budding with a small glow to it, surrounded by the fireflies. Right next to it, the handle that the knight had remained as the last memento to his great deeds...

Zenphyre
April 15, 2011 -­ August 30, 2015